Filling of cash boxes for cash dispensers

ABSTRACT

A method for filling ATM cassettes for automatic teller machines in branch banks provides to fill the empty or half-empty money cassette removed from the automatic teller machine of a branch bank in a mobile charging station during the drive to the next branch bank and to exchange such a money cassette for the empty or half-empty ATM cassette of this next branch bank, etc. The mobile charging station is adapted to work fully automatically. Alternatively, the filling in the mobile charging station can be effected partially manually.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 National Phase Entry Applicationfrom PCT/EP03/08619 filed Aug. 4, 2003, and designating the U.S.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method for filling at least partially emptiedmoney cassettes for automatic teller machines with money as well as anapparatus suitable for filling the money cassettes.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND ART

Automatic teller machines for dispensing money in the form of bank notesand/or coins usually are located at locations distant to each other suchas branch banks, so-called cash points or other facilities authorizedfor receiving and/or dispensing money. The money to be dispensed isprovided in the automatic teller machines in money cassettes, so-calledATM cassettes (ATM stands for automatic teller machine), which atregular intervals or on current demand are exchanged for filled moneycassettes by a secure carrier. The exchanged emptied or half-emptiedmoney cassettes are returned to a central bank or a so-called cashcenter, which is authorized to receive, check and dispense money andusually is located at a site of the secure carrier, and replenished in asecure surrounding there. A manipulation during the refilling operationis nearly excluded here, since usually a supervision by controllingpersonnel in combination with further monitoring measures (e.g. videorecording) is given. Furthermore, ATM cassettes for the most part areequipped with a locking mechanism, which can only be opened with the aidof special tools or methods and therefore prevents an access during thetransport.

This method requires a high expenditure of time and logistics andaccordingly is expensive. It is therefore a basic matter of concern totransport only money instead of money cassettes filled with money.

In WO 00/31696 it is therefore proposed to equip every branch bank witha special self-service apparatus permitting an autonomous emptying andreplenishing of the money cassettes. For this purpose the cassette to befilled is removed from the automatic teller machine, inserted into theself-service apparatus, the required number of bank notes to bereplenished is automatically determined and shown to the operator. Theoperator then feeds a respective number of bank notes into theself-service apparatus, the bank notes then being automatically checkedand loaded into the money cassette.

Such an apparatus, however, has roughly the size of a conventionalautomatic teller machine. Thus it is not only space-intensive but at thesame time respectively expensive. In addition the feeding of the banknotes into the self-service apparatus is not sufficiently protectedagainst manipulations.

In WO 00/31695 instead the use of expendable cassettes is proposed. Atransport of the emptied cassettes there and back then is no longernecessary. With this solution several expendable cassettes are insertedinto an automatic teller machine and successively brought into position.A cassette being in an operating position is opened automatically, andthe bank notes, on individual demand of a customer, are provided inrespective number directly from the cassette. As soon as the cassette isempty, it is disposed of in a self-maintained fashion and the nextcassette is brought into position.

The use of expendables in general is rather undesirable due to wastedisposal problems. In addition, particularly disadvantageous is thefact, that the system described above cannot be integrated into existinginfrastructures. In fact the existing automatic teller machines wouldhave to be replaced by special automatic teller machines suitable forthe use of expendable cassettes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore the problem of the present invention to provide a methodand an apparatus for filling money cassettes for automatic tellermachines located distant to each other, which permit a simpler and morecost-effective exchange of money cassettes and which at the same timecan be integrated into the existing infrastructure with only low costs.

This problem is inventively solved by a method or an apparatus havingthe features of the independent claims. In claims dependent on these arespecified advantageous developments and embodiments of the invention.

According to the invention the money cassettes are replenished in amobile charging station, preferably during the drive from the locationof an automatic teller machine to the location of a further automaticteller machine. The automatic teller machines in this connection can belocated in branch banks, at so-called cash points or at any otherlocation.

I.e. the charging station is not located at the site of the securecarrier, but, for example, in a vehicle of the secure carrier and iscarried along from branch bank to branch bank. At the beginning of thedrive in the transporting vehicle basically only filled money cassettesfor the first branch bank to be stopped at are carried along, and forall further branch banks only cash is carried along. The empty orhalf-empty cassettes exchanged at the first branch bank stopped at arefilled on the way to the next branch bank and there they are exchangedfor the empty or half-empty cassettes removed from there.

By this means not only the transport effort in general, but also thelogistic effort required for packaging, i.e. the picking and equippingof ATM cassettes, at the secure carrier is reduced.

According to a first preferred embodiment of the invention the remainingmoney contained in the exchanged cassettes is transferred to a returncassette and brought back to the secure carrier. One single returncassette can be sufficient for this, when at emptying the ATM cassettesthe remaining money is counted and the determined value, for example,together with the ATM cassette number and/or data regarding branch bankare recorded in a manipulation-proof fashion.

According to a preferred second embodiment of the invention theremaining money is brought back directly into the circulation of moneyby stacking it back into the same ATM cassette immediately after themoney was counted and the determined value was recorded. By this meansthe insurance value of the transport vehicle can be reduced, since intotal less money is transported.

Preferably, the remaining money is stacked back into the cassette insuch a way, that the automatic teller machine dispenses this moneyfirst, i.e. depending on the cassette system either according to theFIFO or to the LIFO principle (“first-in-first-out” or“last-in-first-out”). By this means a regular circulation of money isguaranteed.

The filling of the cassettes is effected in a manipulation-proofsurrounding either in a fully automatic or, optionally, in a partiallymanual fashion. A manipulation by the assistant of the secure carriershall be excluded.

For this purpose the money cassettes and the money are introduced into aself-contained housing through locks. The money is put into the lock inbundles packed to be safe from access and then is automaticallyidentified and checked as to intactness of the bundle, so thatmanipulation attempts by the operator can be detected and therefore areto a large extend excluded.

In the case of a partially manual operation the operator has onlyindirect access to the interior of the housing. But it is advantageous,that with a partially manual operation the emptying of the cassette, thecounting of the remaining money and the temporary storage of theremaining money is effected automatically, so that here to the operatorno manipulation possibilities are opened up.

According to a special embodiment of the invention the operator takeshold of the money and the money cassettes in the self-contained housingvia two hoses penetrating the housing wall, the ends of the hoses beinggloves and the hoses being hermetically tightly closed to the housingwall. By this means the operator neither when supplying money nor whensubsequently opening the bundle and filling the cassette has thepossibility to steal money unnoticed.

Of course, the opening of the bundle introduced through the lock and allother actions connected with the opening, emptying, filling and againlocking the cassettes can be performed fully automatically by suitabledevices. The partially manual variant, however, is inexpensive andlittle prone to trouble. It is, in particular, usable for filling mostdifferent types of money cassettes without requiring specialcircumstances.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following the invention is described in more detail by way ofexample with reference to the accompanying figures.

FIG. 1 shows the course of the procedure in a diagram;

FIG. 2 schematically shows an apparatus for the at least partiallymanual emptying/filling of the money cassettes; and

FIG. 3 schematically shows an apparatus for the automaticemptying/filling of the money cassettes.

In FIG. 1 is shown in a diagram the course of the procedure and how themoney cassettes of branch banks distant to each other are exchanged andreplenished during a drive of a transport vehicle of a secure carrier. Abranch bank within the meaning of the following description in thisconnection means every location of bank machines.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

At the site of the secure carrier at first a transport vehicle is loadedwith money for the branch banks, in particular with bank-note bundlesconsisting of a number of, for example, 100, 200 or 500 bank notes. Thismoney is needed for refilling the automatic teller machines of branchbanks B, C etc., which are stopped at in the second place and later onduring the drive of the transport vehicle. Additionally, for the firststation to be stopped at (branch bank A) a number of packed moneycassettes X are provided, which are already filled with the requiredkind and number of bank notes for the branch bank A.

In the branch bank A the empty or half-empty money cassettes A locatedin the automatic teller machines are exchanged in a conventional fashionfor the pre-packed money cassettes X.

Then the empty or half-empty money cassettes A are refilled in a mobilecharging station, which is carried along with the transport vehicle ofthe secure carrier. The refilling is effected in the transport vehicle,preferably with closed doors, and for reasons of saving time,optionally, it can also be carried out during the drive to the nextbranch bank B.

In the branch bank B then the replenished money cassettes A are used, soas to exchange them for empty or half-empty money cassettes B of theautomatic teller machines of the branch bank B. In this way the methodis continued, until all branch banks of the tour were stopped at and thetransport vehicle returns to the site of the secure carrier. The moneycassettes removed from the last branch bank stopped at eventually can bereplenished in a cash center (not shown), preferably located at a siteof the secure carrier.

When refilling the money cassettes in the mobile charging station atfirst the remaining money contained in the money cassette is counted andrecorded together with the cassette ID number. These data are importantfor the correct settlement of accounts with the branch bank, from whichthe money cassette originally came. Furthermore, it is recorded, howmuch money is filled into the cassette, so as to correctly balanceaccounts with the branch bank, which receives the respective cassette.

In the following two variants are explained, how the money cassettes areemptied and replenished without the danger of manipulation.

FIG. 2 in this connection schematically shows a system for filling emptyor half-empty money cassettes in a partially manual fashion. This systemdoes not have an automatic stack-in mechanism, so that the stacking inof bank notes is to be carried out via a manually controlled robottechnology or directly per hand. In this embodiment this system isreadily suitable for filling all commonly used types of money cassettes.

The charging station of the system shown in FIG. 2 comprises a housing 1with a first lock 2 for supplying bank-note bundles and with a not shownsecond lock for introducing a money cassette 3. The housing 1 can haveseveral different locks for introducing different types of moneycassettes, so that the charging station is universally usable. The locksfor the money cassettes 3 and bank-note bundles 4 are formed in such away, that for the operator an access to the interior of the housing isimpossible.

The bank-note bundles 4 at first are packed to be safe from access. Theycan be, for example, jig-welded under vacuum in a plastic foil in ahermetically tightly closing fashion. The intactness in this case can bedetected by checking the mechanical integrity of the vacuum packaging.Such a proof can be furnished, for example, by measuring the negativepressure in the interior of the bundle 4 against the ambient pressure soas to indicate that air from outside did not pass into the interior.Another possibility is the use of special proof elements, e.g. in theform of sheets or labels, which change their color when coming intocontact with oxygenous air and thus indicate the damage of thepackaging.

In another embodiment special gaseous substances can be entrapped withinthe packaging, which will volatilize when the tightly closing packagingis damaged. The intactness in this case can be detected by checking thepresence of a sufficient concentration of the special gaseous substancesbefore opening the packaging.

The checking of the intactness of the bundle 4, of course, can also becarried out completely independent of the inventively described chargingstation. This is expedient, when in general e.g. a cash clerk is tocheck a received bank-note bundle 4 as to intactness when takingdelivery thereof.

The assistant of the secure carrier introduces the money cassette 3 intothe housing 1 and one or several bank-note bundles 4 into the lock 2.They carry an identification label 5, for example a bar code, whichcontains information on number and denomination of the bank notesincluded in the bank-note bundle 4. The bank-note bundle 4 in the lock2, after the latter having been closed, is automatically checked as tointactness, and the identification label is read. The information of theidentification label in combination with the cassette ID number, interalia, serves for checking whether the denomination of the bank notebundle is correctly adjusted to the cassette type. By this means on theone hand manipulation possibilities for the assistant of the securecarrier and on the other hand the danger of false fillings are reducedfrom the outset. If the checking reveals, that the bank-note bundle 4 isintact, the lock 2 leading into the interior of the housing 1 is opened.

By means of work gloves 6 integrated in the housing 1 and penetratingthe housing wall the assistant now can act within the housing 1. Atfirst he will open the lid 7 of the money cassette 3 and remove the banknotes 8 left therein, i.e. the remaining money. Depending on theembodiment of the money cassette, for unlocking the lid 7 he needs (notshown) special devices or tools, which are accessible only within thehousing. The remaining money 8 is transferred via a (not shown)processing unit into a return cassette 9, whereby it is singled andcounted and the value is determined and recorded.

As to exclude manipulation by an assistant during this operation,according to a preferred not shown variant the steps of emptying,singling and counting the bank notes left in the money cassette 3 areautomated.

The remaining money 8 can remain in the return cassette 9 and betransported back to the cash center of the secure carrier. However,preferred is a direct recycling of the remaining money 8, wherein theremaining money is transferred back into the money cassette 3 at a laterpoint of time. If the money cassette 3, for example, works according tothe FIFO principle, the remaining money 8 is stacked back into the moneycassette 3 immediately after its value has been determined. By thismeans it is achieved, that the remaining money is dispensed first. Thenthe money cassette 3 is replenished with bank notes of the bank-notebundle 4.

For this purpose the assistant takes the bank-note bundles 4, checked asto intactness and correctly identified, out of the lock 2 and opens thetaken out bank-note bundle by, for example, cutting open the packaging.The opening of the bank note bundle can also be effected automaticallyin the lock 2. An automatic opening of the bank note bundle 4technically can be easily realized, since all bundles are independent ofthe cassette and therefore uniform regarding format. They can be easilyproduced by machine, taking into consideration the method for checkingthe intactness. The assistant then stacks the bank notes of thebank-note bundle 4 into the money cassette 3. Finally, the assistantlocks the lid 7 of the money cassette 3 and moves out the money cassette3 from the mobile charging station through the above-mentioned not shownlock.

If, for example, from a half-empty cassette 346 bank notes are removedand again filled in and 3 bank-note bundles 4 each counting 500 banknotes are added, then the money cassette 3 is filled with 1846 banknotes. Number and denomination of the bank notes were determined in thelock 2 as well as with the counting of the remaining money 8 andrecorded together with the cassette ID number. With the help of thesedata there can be clearly reconstructed, how much money was removed fromand supplied to the individual branch banks when exchanging the moneycassettes.

FIG. 3 schematically shows a system alternative to FIG. 2, wherein thecharging station works fully automatically. This system is suitable forspecial types of money cassettes 3, which are compatible with the mobilecharging station.

With this fully automatic system the money cassette 3 at first isinserted into the housing 1 of the mobile charging station or, as shownin FIG. 3, is connected to the outside of the housing 1. By a not shownmechanism the money cassette 3 then is automatically emptied. Here theremaining money 8 is singled, counted and the value is determined, whichis recorded with consideration of the cassette ID number. The remainingmoney 8 at first is temporarily stored in an intermediate cash point 10,e.g. a foil storage, as schematically shown in FIG. 3. Depending onwhether the money cassette works according to the FIFO or according tothe LIFO principle, the money cassette 3 at first is filled with thetemporarily stored remaining money 8 and then filled up with additionalbank notes, or vice versa. The required quantity of additional banknotes for filling up the money cassette 3 directly results from thenumber of bank notes of the remaining money 8 previously determined.

For filling the money cassette 3, bank-note bundles 4 corresponding tothe determined number of required bank notes are inserted into the lock2. The bank-note bundles 4 are identified with the help of theiridentification labels 5 and checked as to intactness, before they areautomatically opened, singled in a singler 11, transported to the moneycassette 3 via a not shown device and are stacked into this moneycassette. The termination of the automatic stack-in operation isindicated to the assistant, who then removes the money cassette 3 fromthe charging station.

The fully automatic variant explained with respect to FIG. 3 thus to alarge extent excludes the possibility of manipulation by the assistantof the secure carrier during the stack-in operation as well.

LIST of REFERENCE SIGNS

-   1 housing-   2 lock-   3 money cassette-   4 bank-note bundle-   5 identification label-   6 gloves-   7 lid-   8 remaining money-   9 return cassette-   10 intermediate cash point-   11 singer

1. Method for filling at least partially emptied money cassettes forautomatic teller machines with money, comprising the steps: removing afirst, at least partially emptied money cassette from a first automaticteller machine, and thereafter filling the first money cassette removedfrom the first automatic teller machine, characterized in that thefilling of the first money cassette is effected in a mobile chargingstation, which can be transported from an automatic teller machine to atleast one further automatic teller machine.
 2. Method according to claim1, characterized in that the first money cassette is exchanged for adifferent, in particular filled money cassette.
 3. Method according toclaim 1, characterized in that the first money cassette after beingfilled, which in particular is carried out at the place of the firstautomatic teller machine, again is inserted into the first automaticteller machine.
 4. Method according to claim 1, characterized in thatthe first money cassette is transported to a second automatic tellermachine, and a second at least partially emptied money cassette of thesecond automatic teller machine is exchanged for the first filled moneycassette.
 5. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that thefilling of the first money cassette is effected during the transport ofthe first money cassette to the second automatic teller machine. 6.Method according to claim 1, characterized in that any remaining moneycontained in the first at least partially emptied money cassette isdetermined as to value.
 7. Method according to claim 1, characterized inthat any remaining money contained in the first at least partiallyemptied money cassette is transferred into a separate return cassette.8. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that any remainingmoney contained in the first at least partially emptied money cassetteis temporarily stored and put back into the money cassette at a laterpoint of time.
 9. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that theremaining money is reloaded into the money cassette in such a way, thatit is dispensed first during the operation in an automatic tellermachine.
 10. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that themoney for filling the money cassette is provided as a bundle, which issafe from access.
 11. Method according to claim 10, characterized inthat the bundle is checked as to intactness.
 12. Method according toclaim 11, characterized in that when checking the intactness of thebundle it is checked, whether the vacuum packaging of the bundle ismechanically undamaged.
 13. Method according to claim 11, characterizedin that when checking the intactness of the bundle it is checked,whether no ambient air passed into the vacuum packaging of the bundle.14. Method according to claim 11, characterized in that when checkingthe intactness of the bundle it is checked, whether the packaging of thebundle contains a proof substance, which was brought in at production ofthe bundle, in sufficient concentration.
 15. Method according to claim10, characterized in that the bundle is introduced into a self-containedhousing, into which also the money cassette is introduced or to whichthe money cassette is connected, and that the bundle then isautomatically identified and checked as to intactness.
 16. Methodaccording to claim 11, characterized in that an operator via a suitabledevice indirectly takes hold of the money introduced into the housingand manually fills the money cassette with this money.
 17. Mobilecharging station for filling money cassettes, comprising aself-contained housing with a first lock for connecting or introducingone or more money cassettes and a second lock for supplying money,characterized in that the second lock is formed as to permit introducingone or more money bundles packed to be safe from access and has a devicefor identifying and checking the introduced money bundles as tointactness.
 18. Mobile charging station for filling money cassettes,comprising a self-contained housing with a first lock for connecting orintroducing one or more money cassettes and a second lock forintroducing money for filling the money cassettes, according to claim10, characterized by a device for indirectly manually taking hold of themoney introduced into the housing and filling the money cassettes withthe introduced money by an operator.
 19. Mobile charging stationaccording to claim 18, characterized in that the device for indirectlytaking hold of and filling the money cassettes comprises hosespenetrating the housing wall, which on one side have a glove-shapedclosed end.
 20. Mobile charging station according to claim 17,characterized by a device for automatically discharging a money cassetteconnected to the housing or introduced into this housing.